Problem: What is $2\%$ of $1000$ ?
Having $2\%$ of something means that you get $2$ out of every $100$ We can set up a proportion to find out what number is $2\%$ of $1000$ $ \dfrac{{\text{percent}}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{\text{whole}}}$ Which things do we know, and what are we trying to find? We know the ${\text{percent}}$ is $2$ . Is $1000$ the ${\text{part}}$ or the ${\text{whole}}$ The $1000$ is the ${\text{whole}}$ . We are trying to find the ${\text{part}}$ that makes up $2\%$ of it: $ \dfrac{{2}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{1000}}$ If we multiply the denominator of the fraction on the left by $10$ , it will be the same denominator of the fraction on the right. To keep things equal, let's also multiply the numerator on the left by $10$ $ \dfrac{{2} \times 10}{100 \times 10} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{1000}}$ $ \dfrac{{20}}{1000} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{1000}}$ $ {20} = {\text{part}}$ So $20$ is $2\%$ of $1000$.